


Nonzero

by Hayato (TheLennyBunny)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Compliant, Complete, Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY GODDAMN, do you really need me to fucking explain what this is about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 12:04:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16702198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLennyBunny/pseuds/Hayato
Summary: An eye into the void, minutes after.





	Nonzero

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wraven (nataeiy1)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nataeiy1/gifts).



It was quiet in the depths of space. 

There was no one on this deserted hunk of rock besides him and the blue lady now. Nebula? He was pretty sure that was her name. If it wasn’t, he didn’t really care since it wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t like she was talking to him anyways.

She’d actually been on some… communicator or something for the past hour? It was smaller than he would have expected but well, he also managed to shove a small nuclear reactor into a cylinder the size of his heart, so he’d stopped bothering to pass judgements a long, long time ago.

No one had picked up in the last hour. Maybe it was bad reception, maybe it was her contacts being busy with what he was pretty sure he would class as the literal apocalypse! Maybe six of one, half the dozen of another, and they were probably all fucking dead but oh well because  _ so was everyone else. _

He could still feel the sensation of flesh crumbling into nothing see panicked desperate eyes hear his voice crack-

Tony fired a repulsor into the nearest boulder. It damn near blew a hole to the other side, but Maybe-Nebula didn’t even flinch. Idly, Tony calculated the odds. The average human could go a week without water, maybe two without food if they had sufficient fat stores and muscle to burn through, though they’d be useless afterwards. He could use his suit to scour the planet for resources, though going by what the purple pickle fuck had said, there’d likely be jack squat.

So a waste of energy, there. Draining something he needed to be conserving, and hell, that wasn’t even considering he’d likely need to repair the suit beforehand so it didn’t shut down on him beforehand. He’d taken one too many punches for it to function at all thrusters.

The inventor wondered what it was like on Earth right now. Who had survived. If Pep and Rhodey were alright, riding the chaos out in their own ways. Would the powers have counted FRIDAY as a person, or was an AI too vague, too mechanical? Would it have counted JARVIS-

He glanced up at the sky, moon dangerously close. Tried pinging FRIDAY, for all that he knew it was in vain. The principle of it was there, maybe. Proving to himself that there wasn’t any sudden miracle to save him right now. That he shouldn’t hope, because  _ look where that had gotten him in the past _ .

“Stark.”

Tony glanced up. Maybe-Nebby was standing in front of him, simultaneously pissed and worried and terrified all at once. It was a look he knew well, so he didn’t get too nervous. He gestured for her to speak, too exhausted to really bother being snarky or polite or talking, really. She held up her communicator, as though it was a grand gesture.

“None of my contacts are answering.” She swallowed, a sign of emotion he didn’t expect. “Thanos succeeded.”

“Didn’t we already know that from everyone dissolving like some bad movie effect?” Tony croaked out. Nebula grit her teeth and looked like she was resisting hitting him. Tony shrugged his shoulders. “Just saying. It’d be unlikely that he’d take out only our slice of space, especially since we weren’t doing all that great in the end.”

He was right, she knew he was right, and they both knew the fact was absolutely useless in doing anything for them. So she turned and stormed off, head turning this way and that as she tapped fingers against her thigh. Tony glanced over himself, taking in the scenery. The ruins around them were likely towering up close, monoliths that once held a whole civilization. Now they stood dusty and empty, completely…

Well now. They didn’t know if they were wholly useless, did they?

“Stark.” He glanced at her, barely dragging himself from calculations of thrust to get out of the atmosphere, how far they likely were from other sapient life, how they could jerry-rig a distress signal, what she knew of intergalactic organisations- “Thanos could not have completely wiped out the resources on this planet.”

Tony stood, joints creaking suit groaning and everything hurt, but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t numb to it, but he was well-worn to ignoring it, and there were more important things. He didn’t do anything so stupid as to offer his hand or grin at Mebby, but he did jerk his thumb at what seemed to be the closest structure.

“Want to see if there’s anything left in those skyscrapers?”

**Author's Note:**

> thelennystorm.tumblr.com


End file.
